Torrance Is Building a Much Bigger Local Water Supply

A major project beneath Torrance could eventually change where a significant portion of the city's drinking water comes from.

Construction is underway on the Torrance Groundwater Desalter Expansion, a partnership between the City of Torrance and the Water Replenishment District of Southern California.

The project will expand the Robert W. Goldsworthy Groundwater Desalter and increase its treatment capability to approximately 7 million gallons per day, or as much as 2.3 billion gallons annually.

The work includes four new groundwater extraction wells, use of an existing well, approximately 1.5 miles of raw-water pipelines, two additional reverse-osmosis treatment trains, new filtration equipment and electrical and control-system upgrades.

The project also tackles an environmental problem: it will pump and treat a historic plume of brackish groundwater that otherwise cannot be used directly as drinking water.

The construction program carries a price tag of roughly $160 million, with substantial federal funding also supporting the project.

Completion is expected later this decade.

For Torrance, the project is important because locally produced groundwater can reduce reliance on imported water brought hundreds of miles to Southern California.

It is the kind of infrastructure most residents may never see once completed—but could affect Torrance's water reliability for decades.

Article Link: Track the Torrance Groundwater Desalter Expansion